Moldovan premier says he seeks boost to talks with breakaway region

February 15, 19:59UTC+3CHISINAU"We will seek the settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict through working out a special legal status that will ensure a broad autonomy for Transdniestria as part of Moldova,"б Зфмуд Ашдшз ыфны

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Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip

CHISINAU, February 15. /TASS/. Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip spoke on Monday in favor of a boost to talks with the breakaway Transdniestria, noting that Moldova’s stance of broad autonomy for the region as part of Moldova remained invariable.

"Moldova supports a boost to talks in all formats," the prime minister said, citing joint sectoral groups, meetings of political representatives and in an expanded format of 5+2 (involving Moldova and Transdniestria as parties to the conflict, the OSCE as a mediator, Russia and Ukraine as guarantors and the European Union and the United States as observers).

At talks with Cord Meier Klodt, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian Settlement Process, he expressed hope that Germany’s OSCE presidency would help move the process of the deadlock.

Filip said Moldova’s stance remained unchanged. "We will seek the settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict through working out a special legal status that will ensure a broad autonomy for Transdniestria as part of Moldova," he said.

He also said he would seek to raise the efficiency of the Bureau for Reintegration responsible in the Moldovan government for Transdniestrian settlement.

Talks in an expanded format were suspended in 2014. Relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol cooled after Transdniestria’s leader Yevgeny Shevchuk accused Moldova and Ukraine of coordinated pressure on Transdniestria and the policy of economic sanctions.

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The Transdniestrian conflict started in March 1992 when the first clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transdniestrian militia near the city of Dubossary, which were followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By summer, it had developed into large-scale fighting in Bendery, where about a thousand people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and became refugees.

The fratricidal war was stopped after a peace agreement was signed in Moscow in July of the same year and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area.

Since then, they have been guarding peace and calm in the region, together with their Moldovan and Transdniestria colleagues, thus allowing Chisinau and Tiraspol to conduct negotiations on the settlement of the conflict around the breakaway republic.